Wednesday, July 16, 2008

War, what is it good for?

Cookies! Anzac cookies to be exact. Luscious, organic, non GMO GLUTEN FREE anzac cookies, to be absolutely exact. Oh, my. They've arrived, my gluten free Bob's Red Mill Oats from the states. I managed to not trip down the stairs when there was a loud knocking on our door at 7am, it had to be the oats, and it was. I don't know how the heck they got gluten out of oats, but these are the real deal, celiacs can actually eat these without having enteric fits of any kind. So if you've been suffering long winters utterly porridgeless, lament no more.Oats are fabulous food for the nervous system, not just because of the calming properties of the vitamins, nutrients and fatty acids they contain, but also because the very act of eating them, as a porridge, in cookies or in crumbles, conjures up a sense of warmth, comfort and nurturing. It's cosmic justice for people with digestive disorders on a truly epic scale, beautiful oats are back without the bothersome gluten. I found out about this product, which was 5 years in the making, on Gluten Free Girl's website. It was hard slog finding someone who would ship the Holy Groats to Australia, but greed always prevails! The first gluten free oat foray was a toss up between porridge and cookies, you're a decadent audience, so the cookies won out. The results were drop dead delicious, but slightly hilarious, and you'll soon see why. Using my very slick new stainless steel Dualit beater in the process (thanks, Mum), I altered a Jude recipe to suit my craving for my very favourite type of cookie. One of my earliest memories is of making anzac biscuits at school, I found the whole thing as exciting then as I do now. This recipe still needs a little perfecting, it wasn't as chewy as I would have liked, so you might want to use some brown rice syrup in place of the maple syrup if you try this one at home, the addition of it will still offer a pure, clean sweetness, but with a much thicker, toffee like consistency and texture, which I think would work really well.So, what ridiculous thing shall I christen thee: Buddah Biscuits (I'll tell you why later).

Preheat your oven at 180 degrees. Combine: oats, flour, sugar, syrup, coconut, cinnamon and butter in a bowl. Either with your hands, or your swanky new beater, get it all mixed in well. Make little balls of the mixture, place on a baking tray lined with baking paper. Bake for 20 - 30 minutes. Before mine went in they looked like this:When they came out, they/it looked like this:I must've placed the cookies too close together on the tray, they all merged into one giant gorgeous biscuity accident. The joys of outrageous fortune: I took enormous pleasure in cutting this up surgically with a sharp knife upon cooling. Hence the title of Buddah Biscuits: All became One. They look quite funky cut up with sharp edges, so I think I won't even bother with making little balls next time. Our occasional flatmate, Mr Costa, who very rarely does dessert, was most impressed. I'll admit to something I probably shouldn't and tell you that I ate a little bit (or alot) of the cookie dough. jesus. anzac carpaccio is divine as well. Bake these cookies, they are simple, wholesome and make the people around you feel loved, appreciated and like helpless, overfed guinea pigs for your various blog related pursuits. If you laugh in the face of gluten, then use a good brand of regular oats, they'll taste just like these.That's the baby pea, sweet potato, spinach, laksa stirfry with grilled peppered, haloumi and brown rice that was tonights pretext for the luscious cookies.

i love em oats! the only stuff i dont use em for mixed in to wheat is for sauces and puffed wheat.now to try these G-free stuff so that my (darn hippies) gluten-intolerant guests no longer have to BYO.

btw, i was the (curious-constipated-hussler) guy at the bookshop/cafe this afternoon disturbing your divine Chai experience with his incoherent rambles while (unsightingly) downing his LBlack and cheesecake while illiterately reading about Bambi and his dead mother (who after reading for 20 minutes was still at page 2).

oh my lord! comments!! if you guys knew how excited I was you wouldn't respect me any more.

dan: i am going to make these for katie and deliver them to her personally, thankyou for loving me and my cookies xx

erin: for a vegan version im going to road test a version with bonsoy and a little more brown rice syrup, it may not taste exactly the same but i think if i can get the consistency right i can tweak the taste from there. ill let you know about the COOKIES.

dominic: hey! thanks for checking this out. im going to email you the coffee places today and put the chai story up in an hour or so.

cindy: only good girls deserve treats, but given that we want to butter mrs bolomey up, ill see if i can arrange a batch for you and tats this weekend.